July Sewing Plan

Since it is Tour de Fleece this month I will be spending most of my free time spinning, but I hope to sew a skirt with this fabric that I dyed with indigo last summer.

That is my One Monthly Goal for July - thanks Patty!!

Photos from around-

With all the hot weather there has been some thunder storms, this one was in the distance-

we couldn't hear anything but there was lots of lightning,

I managed to catch a few on camera-

We live in the corner of a farmer's field,

this year it is a canola field.

Across the street

there is barley.

I never realized before how much chemicals went into growing a crop, there is some kind of spraying every couple of weeks. This week lots of the surrounding fields were sprayed using planes.

It seems like the most dangerous job.

Lots of flowers are blooming in the garden-

The grain bins-

More amazing clouds-

All the best!♥︎

Just Finished!

My One Monthly Goal for June was to make a pillow cover, and I waited until the last moment, but at least it is done.

My 85 year old father stitched the cross stitch pieces when he had to stay home because of COVID 19. The charts are from the book 'Répertoire des Motifs' by Valérie Lejeune. I have a few more stitched pieces, so some more projects in the future. This piece is going to his sister.

Thanks once again Patty (Elm Street Quilts) for the motivation!!

I did finish a couple of knitting projects this past month, but I can only show one.

This is the Sun Tea, a pattern by Laura Aylor, that I knit out of Lindy Chain from Knit Picks. The blue is some that I dyed with indigo last summer. It doesn't look much better on, and I find the linen/cotton blend a bit rough - maybe it will be better after a few more washes, it should be nice a cool though.
I also finished a pair of handspun socks.

Tour de Fleece (an online spinning event) started on Saturday, and I have big plans. I prepared some raw fleece (cleaned, combed, dyed and carded into batts), plus dyed quite a few commercial braids of fibre in anticipation of the event. I know I won't get it all spun during the tour dates - June 27th to July 19th 2020, but it is nice to have some fibre all ready for spinning. There are future socks (3 pairs), a cowl and a sweater all in that bin (it is also my 'Spin the Bin' challenge on Ravelry).

Nice, hot weather and the garden is really growing (the grass is not doing so well). 

I am so glad that it is summer!

All the best!♥︎

June One Monthly Goal

My One Monthly Goal (OMG from Elm Street Quilts) project for June is to make a quilted pillow cover with these pieces of embroidery.

They are just a few of the pieces of cross stitch my Father has been making while having to stay home (the pillow cover will be for his sister).

Thanks for hosting the OMG Challenge Patty!

Photos from around-

An Orchard Oriole at the bird bath this week.

Molly playing with a rock.

All the best!♥︎

May Round-Up

I am glad that I signed up for challenges at the beginning of the year - they are really motivating me.

For the May One Monthly Goal I wanted to finish two mini quilts, and I just got the second one finished today!

This is what I made with the Stay at Home Sampler blocks from the Temecula Quilt Company on Instagram. The quilt is 20"x30".

The other is this Thimble Quilt I talked about last time (14"x25").

Since we are still staying home because of COVID 19 I am choosing to do things that I really enjoy, so both of these quilts are finished the same - small inner border, large outer border, and the machine quilting is the same as well - meander in the centre, loops in the inner border and hooked feathers for the outer border - real comfort sewing for me.

Thanks for the motivation Patty!!

For the May OPAM I finished five projects!

The above two mini quilts, two pairs of handspun socks, and a little orphan block wall hanging.

Both pairs of socks are toe-up, two-at-a-time, 58 stitches, on a 2.75mm needle. I used up every bit of handspun for both pairs of socks. Dyeing the fibre, spinning the yarn and knitting simple socks are definitely some of my favourite things.

I spun up yarn for a couple more pairs of socks-

This one might be a bit thick for socks and work better for slippers.

This one is a rainbow gradient.

This little wallhanging was made with some of my orphan blocks (so I am counting it towards the WOOFA Challenge too). Our son was experimenting with making little hangers for embroidery with his new CNC plasma cutter, and I wanted to try one out (it works well, just needs some design tweaks). It is 5"x14".

Thanks Kris and Cheryll for the motivation too!!

I mentioned last time that our son had made a CNC machine for the plasma cutter, so lots of metal has been cut recently (he did have a week off while waiting for a replacement part to be delivered). His is selling some items -

Mainly little birds of his own design.

This is a velociraptor from a pattern he purchased (he is selling the cut pieces as a kit - permission to sell came with the pattern)

He has also cut out a few other things from pictures online

 This is my favourite - a design by Jack Willoughby, it just needs a red marble in its mouth.

It is 12" high and 23" wide.

 This is one I spray painted.

Even though I had to wear a wool hat this morning (just above freezing temperatures), summer has arrived and we have been gardening!!

The perennial garden is doing well.

The vegetable garden is planted, and things have started sprouting.

We put in a new little area at the back of the yard (our son made a Torii Gate last year and painted it orange last week).

The apple trees are blooming beautifully.

A Baltimore Oriole.

All the best!♥︎

More Thimbles

I finished the thimbles leader/ender project-

This was the last of the thimbles I cut years ago, and I made about 4 or 5 projects with. This one is 14"x26".

I put a couple of borders on this one for a change (all the others I just added binding).

Since I needed a new leader/ender project (and didn't want to go out and buy a new die) I cut more thimbles with different fabrics (for a change). The plan for these is to make a 'larger' (than table runner) quilt - I am sure that this will be years in the making too.

I finished spinning another skein of sock yarn.

It is knitting up lovely. I have been trying to step out of my colour comfort zone with dyeing for socks and it has been really fun to see what happens.

I am also experimenting with different dyeing techniques. I dyed up a couple more batches of sock blend fibre (some BFL/Nylon and a Merino/Nylon) - one is a rainbow gradient, one is spot dyed, and one is a four colour repeat of complimentary colours (blue and orange).

Photos from around-

Our oldest son has been working on a large project - a table for the plasma cutter.

It is a CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machine and involves lots of technical stuff that came from around the world (since it involves water the electronics are all housed in a plastic bin now).

Here is his first little project to try out the machine - it is from a CNC velociraptor skeleton pattern he bought online, his plan is to make a larger version with the body.

We had fog this week (very rare here) and it was rolling across the fields.

Goldfinches are back!

It is really amazing how many birds there are around, some days it is quite noisy.

All the best!♥︎